CVE-2026-68196 wifi: wilc1000: validate assoc response length before subtracting header
A missing length check in the wilc1000 WiFi driver allows integer underflow, leading to out-of-bounds reads and potential denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-68196?
CVE-2026-68196 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 10 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
wifi: wilc1000: validate assoc response length before subtracting header
wilc_parse_assoc_resp_info() computes the trailing IE length as
ies_len = buffer_len - sizeof(*res);
without first checking that buffer_len is at least sizeof(struct wilc_assoc_resp) (6 bytes). buffer_len is the length reported for a received association response (host_int_parse_assoc_resp_info() passes hif_drv->assoc_resp / assoc_resp_info_len straight in) and must be validated before the driver accesses the fixed header.
For a frame shorter than the 6-byte fixed header, the subtraction wraps. For a four-byte response the result is truncated to a u16 ies_len of 65534, so kmemdup() then attempts to copy 65534 bytes starting at buffer + sizeof(*res), beyond the valid association-response data (CWE-125). A response shorter than four bytes can also cause an out-of-bounds read of res->status_code at offsets 2 and 3.
Reject frames too short to hold the fixed header before touching the header or computing ies_len. Also set the connection status to a failure on this path: the caller falls through to a "conn_info->status == WLAN_STATUS_SUCCESS" check after the parser returns, so leaving the status untouched could let a malformed short response be treated as a successful association.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-68196?
How do I fix CVE-2026-68196?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-68196 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-68196 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-68196, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68196, GHSA-hm4w-q57w-3qrc, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68196.